The filker who currently styles himself “Blind Lemming Chiffon” has been writing and making music for, and sharing music with, the filk community for decades under a variety of names.
Apparently his first experience of convention filking was at PenultiCon 2 in May of 1979. It was soon followed by his first Worldcon (at Brighton in 1979), according to his song “Ballad of SeaCon,”.
His wealth of creative songs has been covered by many other well-known filkers including Kathy Mar. He has self-produced several CDs of his songs, and many of his songs have been published in Xenofilkia. Much of his work is parody and lighthearted, however “That Old Filk of Mine,” one of his best, is a bittersweet retrospective piece. While he often wants to be overlooked, is very unassuming, and would like people to think he cannot sing well, his performance always brings a smile, or a tear, to those listening.
He has been hosting house filks in the Denver area since the 1980’s and helped run the Denver Worldcon in 2008. He continues to be a loud and frequent voice for filk, and occasionally when a filker or folk performer comes to the Denver area Lem welcomes them with a House Concert for their benefit.
He has made a point of attending SF conventions all over the world, including many Filk Cons, World Cons, NASFics, and others. He was the Interfilk Guest at FilKONtario in 2004 and has managed to attend our convention every year since then.
He also owns an extremely large collection of filk, all of which was paid for to support the artist.
Lemming plays a multitude of musical instruments and is at master of most of them. These include mandolins and banjos in various sizes, a cittern, 6- and 12-string guitars, and three or four variations on the ukulele theme. He promotes the ukulele to be as serious an instrument as a guitar.
Lem’s style of delivery might tempt one to take his original songs and lyric alterations lightly, but one shouldn’t be fooled; his lyrics are usually both well-crafted and thoughtful.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Blind Lemming Chiffon is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this twenty-sixth day of April, two thousand twenty.